Google Dashboard: Most New Listings Go Pending – For How Long?

It appears that most newly created listings in the Local Business Center (LBC)Google Places for Business Dashboard the DASHBOARD are now immediately going to a pending state.

Like with all Google messaging this has a certain Kafaesque quality to it. The other day Barry Schwartz reported it out as a verification delay which while that may be occurring is not actually what is happening. Verification is still happening. But as soon as the pin is entered the “pending” message occurs.

Googler Jade) noted here on Jan 3: I think that the “Pending” message is due to an expected delay in the updating of dashboards we are experiencing right now.

She noted in a post on Jan 8: We were experiencing longer delays than usual at the end of 2012 and this page may have been affected.

Is it just a delay in the dashboard messaging or is it more significant than that? Is a listing that shows pending having any other issues than the message? Will it likely show up in the index? How long can we expect to see the pending message? Is it a delay in updating the Dashboard message or does it reflect the possibility of a new process or perhaps listing going into limbo for an inordinate amount of time?

It is probably all of that. While the pending message has been around for a while it has never really appeared instantaneously on all newly claimed listings immediately after entering your verification number. Minimally that is new. And appears to be a new level of review (not a bug).

I think Linda Boquet has it right (or very close) when she says: My assumption is if you can find it live, it’s just delayed messaging. If you CAN’T find it live and it’s more than a week since verification, then it may have been pulled for actual review.

I would add that if the Google review finds problems the pending state can last for an eternity with no feedback from Google.

Here is a screenshot (courtesy Andy Kuiper) that you will, in the coming weeks, become all too familiar with:

Please consider leaving a comment as your input will help me (& everyone else) better understand and learn about local.

Google Dashboard: Most New Listings Go Pending - For How Long?
by Mike Blumenthal

29 thoughts on “Google Dashboard: Most New Listings Go Pending – For How Long?”

What astounds me is that Google still isn’t willing or able to communicate these “oops, just a bug on our end” messages more broadly than simply through the blog. SMBs don’t read that. “Their problem,” perhaps. But I just can’t see any reason why Google cann’t throw a quick, simple notification of particularly vexing problems like these into the Dashboard somewhere – like right up near the pitch for AdWords Express.

It is probably NOT a bug. IE the messaging is intentional. The question is what does it mean at various states and times. I think that it is similar to the Currently We do not support fiasco that the action and messaging were by design. Some of the side affects were not.

Interesting…I didn’t get that from what Jade wrote, but I have my dense moments 🙂

Still, I would think that Google could tell people something along the lines of “If you see ‘Pending Review’, check to see if you’re listing is live. If it is, you’re all set. No need to do anything. But if you can’t find your listing anywhere in Google, review our ‘Quality Guidelines’, change your listing as need be, resubmit, and wait.” But I guess now that this kinder, gentler Google is offering phone support (how about that), I guess I’m getting the gimmes.

It is not what Jade wrote. But it has been the pattern over time that when there is a change in messaging then it has been intentional.

I agree that messaging should be clear, when its a bug it should be so noted, when its a change in messaging it should be so noted and what a message means in all of its gory detail should be so noted.

Google has not been good on any of those fronts. Its Deja vue all over again.

I was telling Mike, I think this is much like “do not support”. It can be a totally innocent message, if it’s a brand new listing, due to delay getting everything syncing on the back end OR can indicate a potential problem. Just depends on what’s inside that particular listing.

So just need to review with fine tooth comb to ensure no violations, excessive caps, bad nanny bot words or anything that could be tripping a review filter. Then check to see if live. If all is OK, then it’s likely just the new listing delay – take a deep breath…

I’ve gotten the vague impression from Jade that this may be a temporary delay.

I just asked Jade today, if this is the “new normal”. If it is, I asked her to update the sticky in the forum about “Turnaround times for edits to Google Places listings” AND also requested she do a separate sticky about it. Then at least we have something official to point folks to that explains what’s up.

Not sure if that was edited to reflect this new issue or if it’s always says that just as a timing cushion? “Newly verified listings (they may show as “Pending” or “Active” in your dashboard) **can take up to a few weeks**”

Phil I agree the in-dash messaging needs to be better. What % of every SMB in the world, happens to read the G forum. Less than 1/10 of 1% is my guess.

And even if they do, with all the noise and # of posts they aren’t going to happen to see a post from Jade buried in another thread.

I’ve suggested something before and I’ll bring it up to her again today…

I’m not sure how easy it is to update messages in dash and unfortunately there are often numerous issues so it would take up too much space to notify users about all the issues. What they should do is this…

They should have a short message at top of dash explaining some things don’t go live right away and at times various data is delayed and link to that sticky in the forum which explains it all AND can be easily edited when stuff like this comes up.

It’s KINDA CRAZY there is no in-dash messaging saying Oops videos are borked, don’t bother adding. Oops post an update doesn’t work, either. And by the way don’t bother taking time to enter all those additional details at bottom cuz that info no longer shows. AND thanks for the images but they won’t show for a month.

SMBs should be advised so they don’t A) waste the time entering stuff that does not work any more B) so they don’t worry and complain in the forum thinking their listing is broken C) do they won’t waste support time over nothing.

It could all be explained in one short sentence, linking to that sticky and the sticky gets edited as the pipeline changes or new dash issues come up.

The last few times this has happened to me I simply went into the listing, made some innocuous change (add’l info at bottom for example), and then upon saving it the Pending Review went away and the listing showed as live. It’s like it needs a good kick in the a$$ sometimes. 😉

I have the same on several new claimed listings.
I submitted a request to the new support form and got the following message (from a real person as far as I think):

Hello,
Thank you for contacting Google regarding listings displayed as Pending within your account.
You’re seeing this status message due to a technical error when your listings are in fact live on Google Maps.

Please continue to make updates to your listings with some regularity (even if you just Edit and Submit the listing without changing any information) to ensure that your listing information is sent to Google Maps and to potentially trigger a status update within your dashboard.
We’re working to improve the accuracy of the Places dashboard messaging, and your feedback helps us track this issue. For now, we can confirm that your provided information is appearing on your listings. You can search using your full title and address information to find your listings online.

As you see with Petra’s letter in many cases the message is a meaningless remnant, ie a left over of some process or bug. Annoying for sure but if you your listing is showing up then its not that important.

@Petra
Thanks for the email. It is a human and in many situations the Pending message is meaningless in that the listing has gone live. The question is whether the message indicates a new post verification process of review or whether it is a bug…..certainly there is a bug someplace in your case so I suppose it could be both things.

Thanks, Petra. That seems to verify what Linda says, “…if you can find it live, it’s just delayed messaging. If you CAN’T find it live and it’s more than a week since verification, then it may have been pulled for actual review.”

– I tried… 😉 I made two separate edits on ‘Pending’ listing: I changed a photo image and changed some punctuation in description. I submitted both edits —> still Pending – ack! Listing is live in Maps. I wait 🙂

@Andy
If the listing is live and the description updates in a week or two you are good to go and just have bad messaging (that you need to waste time and energy worrying about and explaining to your client 🙂 so it is not cost free despite its innocuousness).

it most likely is just a bit of a wait per a bottleneck; if that’s all it is,

I think it might be more than that. I think that it is a new level of review and that also has a bug….. My theory: a newly verified listing goes in for review after the pin is entered. Likely human… those that passed algo filters also go directly to the index, those that don’t need to wait for human intervention.

Just a theory but Google doesn’t usually have these sorts of “quirks” without something going on….

Obviously in your case it is not an issue but I think that in some it will be. We still need to better understand the reality.

Google is really hurting my businessm we tried updating our info back in November 2012. We were removed from Google listing s all together.
We are contantly getting this pending message. We tried deleting the first pending listing and resubmitting it. But again soon as we put in the pin we got another pending message. 3 months and nothing. It is very frustrating as our clients are really thinking we are gone out of business. Yoy cant even call Google. They finally called use about 2weeks ago to update the listing. We are still not listed. We just give up. We wanted to do some Google Ads but werw asre even afraid to do that because we arent coming up

jade needs to address all of the pulled listings that are either showing we do not support or pending from the hidden address service business fiasco. why someone at google thought it was a good idea to make phone calls that sound like spaming solicitors and then pull listings if they are hungup on is beyond me. not only would have it been better to send actual emails to business owners it would have been less resource intensive and more productive. small business owners don’t check the google forums for updates and now hundreds if not thousands are stuck in limbo for months after many multi-year established businesses are pulled off all over a f’king box check

I’ve seen some strange things happening with all of my listings over the past three weeks. All of my client listings have dropped dramatically in impressions. Then, today all of the active listings in several of my accounts changed to Pending status. Is anyone else seeing this happening? Like many commenters above have said, it’s pretty frustrating when you follow all the rules to a T, and Google is so buggy or just lacks in communication.

@Richard
Someting is going on with G+Local….what we are not sure. Many, many listings have gone to pending. I just got this email from Linda Buquet:

We’re getting a sudden rash of pending complaints. Just a few posts follow. Some are big agencies where all or most of their listings have gone pending:30 listings:40 accounts:More:

Pending in and of itself is usually nothing bad, just the system waiting to catch up with itself and usually the listings continue to show in the index. The analytics also walk to the beat of a different drummer and frequently don’t work… both more or less par for a very bumpy course. But the volume of these reports, as Linda noted, could portend some bigger problem(s).

The flat-lined impressions is another current problem. I reported and Jade from Google came to a couple of the threads about the problem at my forum and asked for more examples. So Google is looking into that one too.

ALSO if anyone is getting the 500 error and locked out of your merged page, I think they tracked that bug to the new display update. They are working on that one as well.

I claimed 5 new places listings and edited an existing one about 5 weeks ago when I joined a new company. The pending message only lasted a week and then says your listing is ready to “see your listing on Google.
The new listings reflect basic info entered into the Dashboard but you don’t see any photos or video. Even under the Photos link it says “be the first to upload….” Why would Google provide all these features and then ignore them?

Over a month later I’m yet to see any change I made in the listing the business had already claimed. Not even a description displays on this page?
No video, images, times, phone number nothing has changes on the pre-claimed listing.

I’m at my wits end as management are asking why I have not you updated those listings? Google promoted this system as helping SMB but in many cases they are doing the exact opposite. The Google+ Pages are similar. Make changes and see nothing happen. Facebook is so far in advance in this respect.